St Petersburg IndyCar: Will Power and Penske top practice again
Will Power continued to set the pace in the early phase of this weekend's IndyCar season-opener in St Petersburg after leading another Team Penske 1-2-3 in Saturday's third practice session
The defending series champion's fastest lap of 1m01.3621s came mid-way through the session, and never really appeared under threat.
New team-mate Simon Pagenaud came closest to matching the Australian with a time 0.1 seconds slower, leaving Helio Castroneves to round out the top three.
ANALYSIS: Is IndyCar out of the wildnerness?
It would have been a Penske 1-2-3-4 had Takuma Sato not managed to squeak ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya by 0.03s, making the 2014 St Pete polesitter the highest-placed Honda driver.
Sato's AJ Foyt Racing team expanded to two cars over the winter with the addition of a second entry for Jack Hawksworth, and the Japanese driver said that the additional input was already proving to be a benefit.
"We are positive and happier than yesterday," he said.
"To have two cars is helping massively, and even in one race we've seen a difference."
Sato's 1m01.8686s pole time from 12 months ago was bettered by eight drivers during this session, with times set to fall further still in qualifying later on Saturday when the teams are granted access to the softer-compound red tyres for the first time.
Elsewhere in the field, Graham Rahal was one of the few to benefit from the final couple of minutes afforded to him by a late restart to jump up to eighth, just behind Ryan Hunter-Reay and Scott Dixon.
That restart followed a red flag triggered by Tony Kanaan's trip into the run-off, while Sebastien Bourdais was responsible for an earlier stoppage when he had to be retrieved from the escape road at Turn 4.
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PRACTICE TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.3621s | - |
2 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.4835s | 0.1214s |
3 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.5092s | 0.1471s |
4 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.5119s | 0.1498s |
5 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.5445s | 0.1824s |
6 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.6369s | 0.2748s |
7 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.7985s | 0.4364s |
8 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.8573s | 0.4952s |
9 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.8944s | 0.5323s |
10 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.9838s | 0.6217s |
11 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.0287s | 0.6666s |
12 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.0418s | 0.6797s |
13 | Sage Karam | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.1076s | 0.7455s |
14 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing Technology | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.1298s | 0.7677s |
15 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.1322s | 0.7701s |
16 | Luca Filippi | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.1444s | 0.7823s |
17 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.1504s | 0.7883s |
18 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.1595s | 0.7974s |
19 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.2848s | 0.9227s |
20 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.3017s | 0.9396s |
21 | Carlos Huertas | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.3911s | 1.0290s |
22 | Simona de Silvestro | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.4095s | 1.0474s |
23 | Gabby Chaves | Bryan Herta Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.6224s | 1.2603s |
24 | Francesco Dracone | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m04.8715s | 3.5094s |
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